Monday, January 23, 2017

Rehabilitating Mini's

During my vacation in Japan, I noticed one set of mini parallels that caught my attention.

Back in 2010 the Japanese baseball card company EPOCH released a set called 1977 OBクラブ (OB Club), which was a set devoted to retired legends from years past (in this case 1977).

The base card looks like this. Your typical card with a border, player names, team name and a big photo in the middle.

This is what the mini parallel looks like. It's a full bleed photo with only the product logo, the player name and team name on it.

I quite like this. If nothing else than for the novelty of a mini parallel actually looking different from the base card.

Base Back

Mini Back

Wouldn't it be worth a shot for Topps flagship to try something similar where the base had a border and the mini variation set Topps always sells online where without borders? Like imagine something similar to the 2016 Topps design, but with a border. That's your normal base card. And the design we did get for 2016 Topps can be the mini. Or maybe even the reverse.

I think it would at least help that something is different to give the mini another gimmick rather than just being a smaller version of a normal card.

To add a little perspective to the set, the minis are actually throwbacks to the 1977 Calbee design. Or lack of design, since Calbee cards tend to be very minimal in their design. The size might be even closer.

I have the 1987 version of this set. I'll have to keep an eye out for another '77.

I agree, though - it would be nice if the minis had some sort of variation rather than a direct copy. And the same for Opening Day. And Chrome...